Motorsport fans and Ferrari rivals might have felt a certain twinge of dread as Michael Schumacher romped away from the opposition at a second a lap during the Spanish Grand Prix. After performances like that, you hear comments like ‘they’ll have it wrapped up by Silverstone’ being bandied around the paddock.

Of course, the only people who don’t say that are Ferrari themselves. Not surprisingly when you look at it. They suffered two car-stopping failures on Sunday: one for Michael in the warm-up and another for poor old Rubens Barrichello before the race. Give or take ten minutes, both Ferraris would have been out within a minute or so of the start of the race on Sunday - and we’d all be saying something different. No wonder Jean Todt is never complacent.

Furthermore, they are very mindful that at any second, their Bridgestone tyre advantage could suddenly dwindle. They keep saying that ‘our tyres were suited to this track, but they might not be to the next.’ True, but if Michelin can’t get it right on a circuit where they test a huge amount, what chance have they on one where they don’t?

Now don’t get me wrong; I think the French tyre manufacturer has done a great job, but I’m still mystified as to how Williams and Michelin contrive to be uncompetitive on a circuit where they’ve probably done 3500 kms of testing this year. And McLaren, who all but won the last four Spanish Grands Prix, also suddenly fail to find form. Is this Ferrari winning, or everyone else losing?

Well, Adrian Newey, Patrick Head etc don’t suddenly become dummies overnight, do they, so we give credit to RB and RB at Ferrari for designing the best car. What’s really frightening is what will they produce next? Stability of chassis design means, in theory, that everyone else can catch up. But if they insist on the same criteria as with the F2002, that they have to find a performance improvement before they even produce it, then Lord help us all.

Elsewhere in the paddock, some of the ‘haves’ are saying that the ‘have-nots’ should be taking notice of this chassis stability rule and perhaps thinking of down-grading their efforts next year in order to save money. There was much talk of money saving after the Eddie Jordan ‘night (more like week) of the long knives’ where 15 per cent of the staff, from technical, engineering and managing director to Eddie’s own driver have been laid off. As someone who was publicly slated as ‘putting all the money into his back pocket’ by ‘have’ member Ron Dennis last year, Eddie has been rather set-up and is being targeted. His cred is going to be sorely tested in defending himself.

Meanwhile, at the back of the grid, Paul Stoddart may be labeled a ‘have-not’ but when it comes to the ‘haves’, he does have the use of the odd 737 and he used one to good and responsible advantage when he had the problem with his Minardis’ front wings. After Gabriele Tredozzi had hand-carried the lot back to Faenza on a scheduled flight, Minardi’s Italian staff spent the night strengthening them, a European Aviation 737 was on hand at nearby Forli to fly them back to Girona, and once fog had cleared, they made it back to the circuit about 40 minutes before Sunday warm-up.

Then came the nightmare of losing a rear wing in the warm-up. A furious Mark Webber stomped out of his car after spinning off wing-less at the first corner and soon after, Minardi announced the withdrawal of both cars. Once again, the responsible course of action was taken.

But here’s the difference between the ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots.’ When the same thing happened to Kimi Raikkonen in the race, Ron Dennis explained the McLaren team’s reaction thus: “within less than a minute, we were able to interrogate our database and confirm that the wing assembly on (teammate) David’s (Coulthard) car was effectively new which supported by our extensive test mileage convinced us that there was no risk to David.” Such is Formula One. They could probably call up the mileage on both wings instantly, find out the shelf life, who had made it, where he was having lunch etc etc !

Meanwhile, Paul Stoddart had to keep his guest Carol Voorderman entertained without having any cars to look at. None of the other expected high profile guests turned up incidentally; well, none of the Hollywood stars, anyway! King Juan Carlos 1 more than eclipsed them, anyway.

Out on the circuit, the drivers had a great laugh at Eddie Irvine’s expense. We had all seen a sign hung up on the fence by some spectator somewhere around the circuit saying “Irvine. I’m pregnant.” So I primed the drivers to look out for this on the Drivers’ parade on Sunday morning and there it was, spotted by all Eddie’s colleagues, to their massive amusement. Eddie’s response was ‘which Irvine’ to which his father replied ‘chance would be a fine thing!’. It’s nice when you get all the drivers to have a laugh.